Barclays chairman asked ex-CEO Staley about Epstein links, tribunal told

The chairman of Barclays asked the bank’s ex-chief executive Jes Staley “is there anything about you and these girls?” in relation to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, a tribunal has heard.

Nigel Higgins gave evidence in Mr Staley’s legal challenge against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) at the Upper Tribunal in London on Monday.

Mr Higgins first spoke to Mr Staley about his relationship with Epstein between March and August 2019 and learned that he had been on the paedophile financier’s private plane and had visited his island, the tribunal heard.

Mr Higgins said he asked: “Jes, I just have to ask you, because it is unfortunately my job, you just have to tell me, is there anything about you and these girls?”

He told the tribunal that Mr Staley said there was nothing and he had not spoken to Epstein since joining Barclays in 2015.

Jonathan Davidson, a former director of the FCA, phoned Mr Higgins in August 2019 to discuss if the board of Barclays had satisfied itself about the nature of the relationship between Mr Staley and Epstein.

Mr Higgins said in his witness statement that he did not think the matter needed a board discussion, but he would “get something to him” at a later date.

He spoke to Mr Davidson again in October 2019 and said Barclays had no “cause to suspect” that the bank or Mr Staley played a role in the “activities of Mr Epstein that have been under investigation”, the tribunal heard.

“I did have a picture of a diminution in the relationship over the years since he had left JP Morgan and a cessation of contact once he was at Barclays.”

Mr Higgins also said he had understood their relationship to be “essentially business-related” but that new information “paints a different picture”.

He added: “Had my colleagues at Barclays and I been aware of all of the information of which I am now aware, I am sure that we would have questioned Mr Staley about that further information in depth.

“At this distance, and without the benefit of discussing this information with Mr Staley and other colleagues, I cannot be certain what we would have concluded.”

Mr Staley, who ran Barclays from 2015 to 2021, was fined more than £1.8 million and banned from holding senior roles in the financial sector by the FCA in 2023 after it found he misled the regulator over the nature of his and Epstein’s relationship.

Epstein was jailed for child sex offences in 2008 and was arrested again in 2019. He died in prison that year while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking offences.

Mr Staley acted as a private banker to the financier during his time at JP Morgan, where he worked for more than 30 years.

He previously said he “deeply regrets” his relationship with the disgraced financier, and will give evidence later this month.

The hearing before Upper Tribunal Judge Tim Herrington and UT members Martin Fraenkel and Cathy Farquharson is due to conclude in April.